Whitlow
Whitlow is a British blue comedy film directed by Amma Asante. The film was produced, written by and starring James Harrison, the film also stars Oana Gregory, Ben Barnes and Helen George. The film is centered around a brother and sister who work as managers at the same supermarket in the ficition village of Whitlow in the north of England in the 1970s. It is the second film produced by ARB Productions following the highly successful The Sanctuary ''film released in 2017. The film was released on January 12, 2018. The film received universal acclaim from critics and fans alike and has earned a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. All aspects of the film from the acting to the cinematography were received highly amongst the critics. The film was considered the best acted comedy of all-time and as one of the funniest, with many critics noting that the film though intended to be very blue and sexualised with the comedy did not go to far or cross any lines. The film grossed $3.01 billion making it the highest-grossing of all-time, and it took six days to break the record of highest-grossing comedy when it surpassed the $586 million grossed by ''The Hangover Part II. The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards at the 91st Academy Awards and won six including Best Picture. Cast *James Harrison as Cormac Everett, a night manager at a local supermarket. *Oana Gregory as Julia Everett, a day manager at a local supermarket and Cormac's sister. *Helen George as Ariana Webber, a succesful London-based businesswoman and older sister of Cormac and Julia. *Ben Barnes as as Jason Webber, a succesful London-based businessman and Ariana's husband. *Perrie Edwards as Poppy Everett, Cormac's wife. Reception 'Box Office' The film grossed $1.14 billion in the United States and Canada and a further $1.87 billion in other territories for a worldwide total of $3.01 billion, making it the highest-grossing of all-time, and it took six days to break the record of highest-grossing comedy when it surpassed the $586 million grossed by The Hangover Part II. The film also broke the record for fastest film to reach $1 billion earning the figure in 9 days and the fastest to reach $2 billion taking 32 days. 'Critical Response' All aspects of the film from the acting to the cinematography were received highly amongst the critics. The film was considered the best acted comedy of all-time and as one of the funniest, with many critics noting that the film though intended to be very blue and sexualised with the comedy did not go to far or cross any lines. The film received universal acclaim from critics and fans alike and has earned a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 4.9 out of five from the audience with 100% of the audience liking it as well. The film is one of seven films released in 2018 to receive a 100% rating. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating based on reviews, the film has a perfect score of 100 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". It is only the ninth film on Metacritic to score a perfect 100 score. British newspaper The Guardian called the film a comedy masterpiece giving it five stars out of five. They praised Amma Asante's direction, Harrison's screenplay and Gregory and George's performances. In June 2018 they listed the film in their unranked list of the Best films of 2018 so far. Most critics praised Harrison, Gregory, George and Ben Barnes' performances but most singled out Gregory and George for their performances calling them some of the best performances they had seen to date. Sequel and TV series Following the success of the film Netflix commissioned an eight-episode series of a TV version of the show entitled ''24/7 Service ''that first aired on the streaming service in May 2018 before being shown later in the year on the UK Channel 4. The films lead actor and screen writer James Harrison confirmed in September 2018 that they had begun production on a sequel scheduled to be released between August 2019 and January 2020.